if you were sexually abused by a priest, scout leader, coach or teacher contact us confidentially today. it's time. on our current trajectory, our hospitals are going to be overwhelmed by mid july. >> race against time. local governments across the u.s. scrambling to stop a sharp increase in coronavirus cases. states hit the hardest are the same ones that donald trump desperately needs to remain president. what does this mean for the election? also, >> come on, hustle up. >> an update on claims that

russian intelligence offered cash to the taliban as a reward for killing u.s. and uk troops in afghanistan. hear what the white house and the u.s. intelligence chief have to say. hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. welcome to "cnn newsroom." well, as coronavirus cases surge across much of america, it is increasingly clear that many states have moved in the wrong direction. and are now rolling back their reopenings. let's have a look at our map, you'll see cases on the rise in more than half of the country. with some states hitting new highs. it's hard to find a patch of green on that map there where numbers are actually going down. now some of these states started opening back up early, but now they're starting to walk back those measures or at least put them on hold. in california, america's most populace state, the hospitals and especially intensive care

units under intensive strain. the governor warning he could pull back the state' reopening. the u.s. accounts for one quarter of the almost 10 million cases worldwide and the almost 500,000 deaths. and the situation could be even worse than we know, in terms of infection. the centers for disease control and prevention says based on antibodies found in some blood samples, the actual number of infected people could be at least six or up to 24 times higher than what's being counted at the moment. hospitals also overwhelmed in houston, texas. our alexandra field is here with the latest. but let's get to randi kaye at another hot spot, florida. >> reporter: here in florida, yet another record day, a spike in cases, 9,585. that is the highest number of cases in a single day.

the governor is still saying that that is because of increased testing. increased testing from about 24,000 tests a day to 45,000 tests a day. but we are seeing higher positivity rates in the state of florida, mostly among young people, ages 33 to 35 years old, mostly asymptomatic. but they do hang out a lot in bars, and the goech has decided that was a reason to close all of the state bars, which he has done. but the governor has decided not to issue a mandatory order that everybody in the state of florida wear masks, so he's leaving it up to those local governments and local municipalities, saying he's going to trust people to make good decisions. but we see people out and about here in west palm beach not wearing their masks, so it's unclear if everybody is really making good decisions. in miami, miami dade county, they have decided to close the beaches because of the spike in case coming up for the very

busy, popular july 4th weekend. the mayor saying he doesn't want to see a spike on top of a spike. randi kaye, cnn, west palm beach florida. >> reporter: officials here in the houston area now sending out more warnings, letting people know that the city's hospitals could be overwhelmed in a week to three weeks if we continue to see new covid cases rise at this rate. texas medical center, the world's largest medical complex reported that 100% of their icu beds were full this week. they also reported 28% of those beds were filled by covid ma patients. hospitals are implementing surge plans across the city. greg abbott has taken some steps to try to put the genie back in the bottle. he's placed new restrictions on bars and restaurants as we see more of these cases affecting people in their 20s and 30s, but officials say more needs to be done. nothing will stop the spread that we're currently seeing short of an all-out stay-at-home order, something the governor has not ordered.

in houston, texas, alexandra field, cnn. neighboring austin also bracing for an onslaught of new cases. the city's mayor explaining what he is most worried about. >> right now, the scientists, the doctors tell us that on our current trajectory, our hospitals are going to be overwhelmed by mid july. that gives us probably about a week to maybe ten days to see if we're able to change behaviors enough. we're on a scary trajectory, and i need my community really, now, to rally and show some discipline and i, and it's time. >> and joining me now is dr. jonathan reiner, he's a co-director of the cardiac kath ritization, and cares for former u.s. vice president dick chaene.

numbers soaring. even the european union doesn't want americans traveling there. what needs to be done like yesterday. what would it take in a perfect world with actual leadership to bring this back under control? >> reaching out to the public and getting everyone in this country to wear a face mask when they go out into public, number one. testing many more patients than we're testing now. number three, probably in selected areas, probably shutting some places down. because the health care systems are really at the breaking point in places like texas. so i think we have to have the political will to do all that. we did it before. in the earlier part of this first wave in places like new york and massachusetts and new jersey, and we can do it now. we have to have the political

will. we've seen some rumblings of that in texas, and i hope that strong leadership continues. >> you know, with those case numbers soaring, the hospitalizations of course, lag behind diagnosis and deaths lag behind hospitalizations, are you expecting an uptick in deaths at the moment? a lot of the new cases are young people, but they are the carriers for the more vulnerable, right? >> that's right. and it sort of depends on the case mix going forward. so we've sort of plateaued with the death rate sort of fluctuating between 600 and 800 deaths per day. our daily case, new infection rate is really skyrocketed to over 40,000. so if there is a large portion of new infections in young people, the mortality rate, you know, may stay where it is now.

but as those young people infect older people, the worry is that that death rate will it go up. so it's a little hard to tell now. we'll have a better sense in about a week. it takes about a week after someone becomes infected until they get sick enough to be hospitalized. and then often about another week after that until you start seeing deaths. so it is a lagging indicator, and obviously, everyone is concerned about the death rate starting to take off again. >> and what are your concerns? what is the risk of hospitals being overwhelmed again? and what is the state of readiness in terms of ppe, icu beds and so on. is that a big concern for you at the moment? >> it certainly is. so let's look at texas. so houston, which is now the new epicenter of this pandemic in the united states, they have the largest medical center in the world. texas medical center, which has about 60 hospitals.

and when i checked yesterday, it looked like about 98% of their icu beds were filled. now we have the ability around the united states, and we learned this over the last few months, to create innovative spaces to treat patients in an icu setting that is not really an icu setting, like turning o.r.s into icus and recovery rooms into icu ths, but it's an enormous strain on hospitals and the staff, places the staff at great risk. and hospitals can get to a breaking point. this was the whole point of flattening the curve. flattening the curve, spreading out the cases so that our medical system didn't get overwhelmed. we barely missed that in places like new york and new jersey six wooks ago. and i'm worried about texas. the difference is that when new york was at its breaking point, new york shut town.

new yo new york shut down. texas is not shut down. we did hear from the harris county executive an order for non-essential people to stay home, but we haven't seen that. >> leadership, national coordination, you'd think, is pretty important in times like these. we have seen that coordination in countries that brought their cases down. i mean, in the u.s., testing was lacking from the start. it still is. the shutdown was slow. the restart was fast in many places. there's been pretty much zero federal coordination of anything. you know, it's literally just scrolling through the president's twitter feed. it's on everything but this. are you worried about the lack of a coordinated federal response? >> absolutely. so, when we started talking about opening two months ago, the federal government had a reasonable plan. and it called for states to have

14 consecutive days of downward trend in new cases and declining positivity rates and increasing testing rates and hospital capacity. but look at texas. when texas opened, they only had two consecutive days. they had, barely had two consecutive days of a downward trend. so many of the places that opened weren't ready to open. and certainly not ready to sort of move towards phase three. and we're paying the price for that now. the problem is that there is an essential conflict of interest between treating this pandemic the way it needs to be treated and running for reelection, and the president is facing this now. in order to, in order for him to succeed in reelection, he has to make this go away. he has to pretend that it doesn't exist. and that's why the vice president started his briefing yesterday by saying oh,

everyone's heard now the encouraging news. i have no idea what he was talking about. he's not living in the same world that i'm living in. but in order for them to succeed in reelection, they really have to try and get the people of this country to believe that the pandemic is gone, that we're moving on, that it's business as usual. so, until we have leadership that is willing to do the difficult things, it's going to be very difficult to put this down. >> yeah. that's the funny thing about pandemics. it's hard to pretend they've gone away when hospitals are full and people are dying. doctor, going to leave it there, dr. jonathan reiner, coe director of the cardiac kath tarization. thank you for your expertise, sir. >> my pleasure, have a great night. the fatal consequences of washington's retreat from science-based reality is best understood against the rest of the world. in each case, fact-based data

drove a strong coordinated and centralized response and public compliance. cnn's brian todd reports. >> reporter: the coronavirus crisis in america has reached such disturbing levels that the european union could soon block americans from traveling to europe, according to officials. one diplomat telling cnn europe will be looking to keep out visitors from countries where the virus is circulating most actively. and by that measure, experts say, the u.s. doesn't stack up well. >> the united states has not responded in a coherent, organized fashion which is capable of doing anything serious to really stand in the way of this virus. >> reporter: the united states is returning to the high infection rates of the outbreak's early days, while the european union has pushed its rate down and seems to be keeping it down. in europe, even in places like italy, which was devastated by the virus earlier on, longer lockdowns, aggressive testing

and contact tracing have proven effective, like states like florida, texas, arizona and california are seeing enormous new spikes. >> the u.s. response is just lagging. we're not doing what we need to do to keep physically distanced. we're not across the country scaling up contact tracing as effectively as needed so we can prevent cases from exploding into clusters and outbreaks. >> reporter: south korea like the u.s. has big cities with dense populations vulnerable to coronavirus but has had dramatically fewer cases and deaths than the u.s. what tactics made the south koreans more successful? >> in south korea, they have an extraordinarily, very smart testing program, which enables them to rapidly identify cases, rapidly inform the contacts of those cases. and then rapidly isolate them. >> if you had moved to south korea on january 20th, when each of our countries had its first case, would you have been 70 times less likely to be killed by this virus. >> reporter: experts say another big reason the u.s. has fallen

behind other countries in the handling of the pandemic is because the federal government allowed individual states to take the lead and make their own decisions of when and how to reopen. as a result, many states reopened much too quickly, while states hit hard early on like new york didn't. >> they held it over a period of weeks to months. they wrestled the pandemic to the ground to the point where now they're more worried about there being new introductions. >> open your business now! >> reporter: experts say one other problem the u.s. has had, the politicization of the response, leaders like president trump, vice president pence, openly shunning guidelines on wearing masks. trump on fox radio even making fun of joe biden, who's worn them. >> he started speaking through the mask again. he feels comfortable with a mask on, i think. and even though there was nobody anywhere near him. >> reporter: but president trump and other republicans are not the only ones being criticized

for politicizing the response to coronavirus. experts point out not only did some democratic governors not call out or prevent people from staging mass protests against police brutality recently, clearly a risky venture during the pandemic, but a couple of them joined the protests, breaking their own lockdown orders. brian todd, cnn, washington. one person is dead and another is injured after a shooting in louisville, kentucky. this happened during a protest in jefferson square park on saturday evening. law enforcement officials say they performed life-saving measures on one of the victims. unfortunately, he died. a short time later, police received word of a second shooting victim at the nearby hall of justice. he was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. going to take a quick break here. when we come back, summer is here in the northern hemisphere, and that means time for the beach, but, in spain, beaches are being monitored closely for

potential covid surges. we'll have a report. also a startling story out of afghanistan. we'll look into allegations that russia and the taliban may have costco ligs troops their lives. you're watching "cnn newsroom," we'll be right back. cartilage and bones. and unlike big glucosamine chondroitin pills, it's all in one tiny pill. try move free ultra now. feel the difference.

this is the sound of greatness (speaking german badly) no shortcuts no magic stars (speaking spanish badly) (speaking french badly)

being great means being pretty bad for a while and soon you'll be something else (speaking german perfectly) speaking a new language rosetta stone how language is learned listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™ but did you know your eyes,d brain, ga-3s and joints love them too? megared 4in1 one softgel delivers the omega-3s of two fish oil pills.

try megared 4in1. now in new gummies. it's kind of my quiet, alone time. audible is a routine for me. it's like a fun night school for adults. i could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. i never was interested in historical fiction before, but i'm obsessed with it now. there are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i don't have time to read, mean i might as well listen. if i want to catch up on the news or history or learn what's going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. because i listened to her story over and over again, i made the decision to go ahead and follow my own dream, which was to help other veterans. i think there's like 180 books in my, in my library now. it changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. it's true, it's so true. to start your free 30-day trial, just text listen25 to 500500.

welcome back. the number of confirmed covid-19 cases around the world is fast approaching the 10 million mark. and in the last several months almost half a million people have lost their lives to the outbreak. the president of the european union, of the european council says the eu will pledge $6 billion to help vulnerable countries devastated by the virus. many fear that india will be one of those countries. it is now reporting its biggest jump in cases in a single day, bringing the total number to almost 529,000. and the president of honduras tweeting two photos of himself working from the hospital. he's tested positive for covid-19 along with his wife and two aides. in spain, a step back in the

fight against coronavirus, as the country reports eight deaths on friday. this is a jump from last week when it had a maximum of three in a day. the spanish health ministry also reporting 200 new cases in the last 24 hours, yet spain continues to take steps to reopen, and with the summer weather, officials are using drones and patrols to keep an eye on beach goers, we are joind from live in valencia, spain. how is this going to work? >> reporter: well, you know, the rise in cases is definitely a concern, but spain says so far it's manageable. they're monitoring about a dozen different outbreaks across the country. what they're very keenly aware of is that it's summer now, holiday season, and the beaches will get busier, now it's still morning, so, as you can see, there's not too many people outside, but there are distancing measures in effect.

and what that means is that you have to have groups of ideally under ten people, and they must stay two meters apart. now what they're doing to patrol that is they're using drones. they have police with dune buggies going through here, warning people to stay apart if they're getting too close. and in some beaches where it's much more crowded you have to use an app to book space. these are some of the measures going forward. now wlofrn whether or not that's going to work we just have to wait and see. so far the numbers coming the beaches are keeping down. that's probably because most of the tourists who would come here, the morforeign tourists aren't here. it really is sort of a test at this moment to see whether or not these loosening of measures, whether they will see a spike in infections or just enough for the country to manage, michael. >> and how would it work, when you're trying to keep an eye on

beaches and hundreds of people, obviously tourism, tourism money is important, but how would it be enforced? >> reporter: well, mostly it's enforced, what you see is signs everywhere, there's lots of warning signs. as you can see, not many people wearing masks outside in public areas like this, you don't have to wear a mask, but you do see a lot of police especially on the boardwalks in that area, saying listen, if you're going to be in close quarters you need to wear a mask. so you're seeing a lot of these civilian volunteers going around reminding people that yes, can you go out and have fun, but there is still a pandemic. and so we still have to take those precautions. one of the interesting uses of technology here are the apps and the drones. the apps that they have here will alert people if there's too many people at the beach. they get a red warning on their phone saying it's not a good time to go to the beach. the drones will be flying once you get big crowds, and if the

crowds are too big the drones will give audio warnings, saying people need to disperse, so far they haven't had to do that, but those are the measures that will be put in place if necessary. >> atika shubert there in valencia, spain. new york remains america's worst-hit state, but it has seen a major dropoff in new infections and deaths. it was markedly different of course back in april, and that's when a nursing union president spoke to cnn's don lemon. she discussed the horror of the virus, especially for some of her fellow nurses who gave their lives fighting to stop it. >> we have lost some nurses. they've succumbed to the virus, and we have quite a few already in the icu, terribly at risk because of the veesh veer

lens of the virus. >> you said you've lost -- i hate to cut you off. i'm going to let you finish. you've lost some nurses meaning they are sick or they have passed away? >> they have passed away. >> well, my colleague, natalie allen, caught up with judy sheridan gonzalez to speak about where things stand now. >> i don't know if they didn't believe what we were going through, if they couldn't understand it or they thought new jersey and new york and connecticut and the northeastern states had some kind of problem they weren't going to have, we're the same human beings all over the place, and they should have been prepared based on what we went through. we suffered so much in vain. >> and you can see more of natalie's interview with the president of the new york state nurse's association in about two hours from now on cnn. well, we have talked about

how people didn't socially distance at the trump rally last saturday, but a report says the venue actually wanted them to. so what happened? we'll tell you when we come back. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel five indicators of brain performanc: memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free. i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair

and honest bidding site. an ipad worth $505, was sold for less than $24; a playstation 4 for less than $16; and a schultz 4k television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. how do you get skin happy 24/7? aveeno®

with prebiotic oat. it hydrates and softens skin. so it looks like this. and you feel like this. aveeno® daily moisturizer get skin healthy™ there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us.

virule welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes, you're watching "cnn newsroom." the trump campaign is making some changes in the vice president's schedule because of the coronavirus. it's postponing next week's events in florida and arizona where there are, of course, big surges. mike pence will still visit a dallas mega church on sunday

morning. and check this out. let's have a look at this. you see the "do not sit here" stickers? they were on many of the streets in the arena before donald trump's june 20 rally, an effort by the venue to encourage social distancing. now watch this. the "washington post" reporting the campaign peeled thousands of the stickers off before the rally. the white house official told the paper neither the president nor the white house asked for the stickers to be removed. but you see it happening there, don't you? cnn's jeremy diamond with more now on coronavirus policy and politics at the white house. >> reporter: well, as coronavirus cases are surging nationwide, president trump in recent days has continued to down play the severity of the crisis and insists falsely that testing, an increase in testing, is the reason why we are seeing these spiengs in several states around the country. of course the truth of the

matter is that while testing is increasing, the number of positive cases is also riding, which shows this is not just about testing. while the president has down-played the severity of this crisis publicly, the president has been concerned privately about his potential exposure, and with that, we have also seen the protective measures around the president, measures to protect him from getting the virus have actually stepped up. in particular, every venue that the president enters is now being inspected for potential areas of contagion by security and medical teams. the bathroom that he may use during one of those events when he's traveling, crushed and sanitized thoroughly. and every individual around the president who comes into contact with him is also being tested. that's despite the fact that the white house has actually scaled back some of its other preventive measures that don't necessarily deal directly with the president. for example when i walk into the white house, i've normally got and temperature check. that is no longer happening. now while all of that is happening, we also know the vice president, who has himself made

that same claim about testing and really tried to paint a much rosier picture of the situation in the united states than actually exists, he is also scaling back some of his plans to travel and specifically some of his plans to campaign in person. the vice president was scheduled to travel to florida and to arizona for campaign events. the vice president will still be going to those states, we're told, to get an in-person briefing on the situation there, but he is canceling campaign events that were scheduled to take place in both of those battleground states. so certainly, some changes are happening, but, again, protective measures around the president tightening, but the president himself, his rhetoric certainly hasn't changed. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. ron brownstein joins me from los angeles. good to see you, sir. >> hi, michael. >> you've tweeted in recent days regarding the coronavirus and the political impact it could

have, what is president trump going to say when the virus kee keeps surging throughout the sunbelt states as you point out, states i must win to get reelected. he's in trouble in arizona and florida already. where's this headed? >> well, look, today, just today, four key sunbelt states following trump's cues who opened early, who have refused to change course as case loads have mounted and who conspicuously have blocked democratic local officials from regulating or slowing the pace of the reopening, those four states, texas, florida, arizona, they alone reported more than 20,000 cases. and in all of those states, the case load is concentrated most intently in the big metropolitan centers. that's important, because the big metros, the urban and suburban areas of the sun bebel

have not moved toward the democrats nearly as much until trump's election. and i look at maricopa county, arizona as the classic example. it was the largest county in america that trump won in 2016. no democrat has won it in the presidential level since 1948. but in all the polling done this spring, trump is trailing there as much as by double digits. today maricopa passed 42,000 cases. the hospital beds are being filled. i don't make a lot of upequivocal predictions. there's almost no chance that he'll be president if he loses that county, and all the political and public health trajectories in that county are moving in the wrong direction for him. >> a lot of those most affected by this virus are blue collar people, elderly people, and they're the ones that are the

core of his constituency. you've been tweeting about today. i did want to ask about the administration, going to the supreme court to have obamacare essentially abolished. what is the potential for that to be a major political plunder in the middle of a pandemic. 23 million people could lose insurance, everyone could lose coverage of preexisting conditions, and the truly staggering thing is republicans have no firm replacement, no firm alternative on the table. they never have really. >> there are two issues about this that are extraordinary. one is that he is forcing back, by their choiis choice in the m a pandemic when people are concerned about their health situation, he is forcing this debate back to the center of the conversation. it is an issue on which the democrats have consistently had a 15, 20, 25-point advantage over him on polling on who do you trust to handle health care. he has now guaranteed with this

filing that this is going to be front and center for the rest of the year. the other problem he's got which is what you alluded to with the coronavirus. to the extent republicans have an alternative revision to obamacare, it is that obamacare requires too much sharing of risk between the young and the healthy and the old and the sick. and their answer to bringing down health care costs is to basically unravel that and to lower costs, the premium costs on people who are younger and healthier at the price of making it more expensive and difficult for people who are older and sicker to get coverage. the problem they face is that it is their own voters. older, working-age whites before they qualify for medicare, people from 45 to 64, who are the big losers in every alternative republicans have put forward for almost 40 years. and i believe in 2018, this was a big part of the erosion we saw for the president and his party among those blue collar white

women who were so critical to him winning in 2016, and, again, if this is front and center, it is probably the most powerful wedge the democrats have to try to win back some of those culturally conservative voters who like trump's messaging on many other issues. >> he spent three and a half years saying he's going to have the best health care and protect preexisting conditions and here we are getting rid of all that. it really is incredible. a lot of republicans, meanwhile, made noises that they want more conciliatory positions from the president, particularly on race, but then on friday he signs that executive order essentially trying to protect confederate statues, even though laws already exist that do that, let's not bother with that. how worried is the gop about the path this president is taking with an election a few months out. >> they have no cause to be questioning him after they have been feeding him rope month after month after month. the president has faced no real

constraint on any front from republicans but particularly on issues of race. you know, i think it is unlikely that the president would have been using kind of inflammatory, racially divisive language we heard in tulsa, when he talked about king flu and bad hombres. if he had faced consistent push back from the party over these past three and a half years. with very, very few exceptions, they have been unwilling to call him out. look, they are speaking to the portion of the american ele electorate that are most concerned about the change demographically. there is a pretty clear majority of americans, including a jorlts of white americans, who are more, have a greater consensus than in the past that there is structural racism in this society and that there are things that need to change. the president is, today release add new ad. he is trying to run as if it is

1968. it is a very different country. i think there are republicans who are nervous about channelling richard nixon 52 years later. >> thank you, ron brownstein. sources tell us that the trump administration continues to finalize a plan to withdraw thousands of troops from afghanistan by the autumn. only 4500 would remain. the fewest since the war began in 2001. violence has been on the rise in the country, despite an agreement with the taliban militants signed in february. now that calls for u.s. troops to leave by next april if the taliban upholds certain commitments. which leads us to a startling story developing that shows the situation in afghanistan remains extremely complex. now it involves allegation of russian intelligence offering cash to taliban militants as a reward for killing u.s. and uk troops. now the u.s. director of

national intelligence says he's confirmed that neither president trump nor vice president pence were briefed on the matter, which seems extraordinary. that statement from john radcliff contradicting what the "new york times" originally reported. now nick paton walsh is working on the story. >> reporter: european intelligence official is telling me that russian military intelligence officers made offers of cash rewards to taliban fighters in afghanistan if they would kill or attack u.s. or other coalition soldiers. now it's not clear to this european official quite what the motivation behind this russian offer was, but they do believe that that's cash incentives resulted in coalition casualties. they're not clear on the date of these casualties. the nature of the casualties, the nationality or the location, but these are startling direct allegations, initially first reported by the "new york times," citing u.s. officials.

i should be point out the taliban have denied any involvement in these talks. they don't need foreigners to tell them how to conduct their insurgencesy. the white house has responded to the "new york times" report on this, which claimed that president trump and vice president mike pence were in fact briefed on these intelligence reports about russian intelligence offering rewards to taliban to attack u.s. troops. the white house denies that that briefing in fact occurred. there's some dispute there, but certainly, the allegation by the "new york times" and by the european intelligence official that i spoke to are not directly denied at this stage by the white house. the european intelligent person i spoke to described it as callous. a little more detail from this official who said that the precise part of the giu that was

behind this is a unit called 29155. now they were accused by european intelligence officials of being behind the attacks on the skripal father and daughter and have been accuse the of other prominent attacks around europe. quite why would russia wanted to be behind something like this is unclear. are they trying to expedite the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan? well, president trump, who initially wanted to win that war has made it very clear he wants a peace deal if he can with taliban and to get out. there's been advanced planning for withdrawal of more troops from afghanistan by the united states. so a lot of questions as to why russia would do this if indeed these repeated allegations by intelligence officials are true and also precisely where this leaves u.s. policy in afghanistan also, too. why the president and vice president wouldn't have been briefed as the white house says they weren't, if they received

intelligence reports of this nature. startling revelations about the u.s.'s continued presence in afghanistan and russia's meddling therein. at least one person is dead and four injured after shots rang out at a walmart distribution center. this is in red bluff, california, north of sacramento. now according to the authorities, the alleged shooter has died. police say the suspect exchanged gunfire with officers. a city official also confirming to cnn that a car rammed into the distribution center, causing a fire. police say the u.s. justice department and the fbi are assisting in the investigation. we'll be right back. it's been 7s since your ancestors served in world war two. many of their stories remain untold. find and honor the veterans in your family. their stories live on at ancestry. you wof your daily routine, so why treat your mouth any differently?

complete the job with listerine® help prevent plaque, early gum disease, bad breath and kill up to 99.9% of germs. listerine® bring out the bold™ i'm a talking dog. the other issue. oh...i'm scratching like crazy. you've got some allergic itch with skin inflammation. apoquel can work on that itch in as little as 4 hours, whether it's a new or chronic problem. and apoquel's treated over 8 million dogs. nice. and...the talking dog thing? is it bothering you? no...itching like a dog is bothering me. until dogs can speak for themselves, you have to. when allergic itch is a problem, ask for apoquel. apoquel is for the control of itch associated with allergic dermatitis and the control of atopic dermatitis in dogs. do not use apoquel in dogs less than 12 months old or those with serious infections. apoquel may increase the chance of developing serious infections and may cause existing parasitic skin infestations or pre-existing cancers to worsen. do not use in breeding, pregnant, or lactating dogs. most common side effects are vomiting and diarrhea.

feeling better? i'm speechless. thanks for the apoquel. aw...that's what friends are for. ask your veterinarian for apoquel next to you, apoquel is a dog's best friend. how do you gaveeno® happy 24/7? with prebiotic oat. it hydrates and softens skin. so it looks like this. and you feel like this. aveeno® daily moisturizer get skin healthy™ this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit.

brazil suffering one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks right now. it's reporting more than 1100 new deaths in just 24 hours. some of the hardest-hit areas are the most remote, deep in the

amazon. cnn's shasta darlington shows us why. >> reporter: a house call to one of the most remote inlets of the amazon river in brazil. so far away that medical workers must travel hours by boat to get there. but not isolated enough to be spared from the coronavirus. during this visit, one man is found to be very ill. and is taken to the hospital. his daughter says she's afraid for him and says -- we're sad, because even though he's going there, we don't know when he'll get there, and we can't be sure he'll come back. hundreds of cases of coronavirus have been reported near brazil's island where many victims have been buried before they can be diagnosed, let alone treated. the people are poor, fishermen and farmers who earn a few dollars a day, who live in small, wooden shacks with no

space to social distance and no phones to call for help. one resident says there are a lot of negative thoughts among us. how long is this going to last for? how many people are going to die? the water ambulances have become a lifeline for the sick, who can't travel the long distances, sometimes as much as 36 hours to get tested in the town centers. one health official says we use the boats to get by river to place with difficult access. this makes a difference when combating covid-19. this woman was stuck at home with a headache and flu-like symptoms. the mobile clinic was able to test her and confirm she has the virus. she says she's grateful for the help. saying thank god they've been coming. we're very happy to be able to get this service at home. a service that is more and more in demand. as water ambulances navigate the river to try to find more cases,

as virus rates reach unchartered levels. shasta darlington, cnn, sao paulo. we'll take a quick break. when we come back, getting creative and fighting coronavirus at the same time. masks are getting more sophisticated. we'll show you some of the best ones. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™

laso you can enjoy it even ifst you're sensitive. se. yet some say it isn't real milk. i guess those cows must actually be big dogs. sit! i said sit!

for the same medications as the vet, but up to 30 percent less with fast free shipping.

visit petmeds.com today. well, we know by now that health experts say that wearing masks is critical for stopping the spread of the coronavirus, and we've seen people get pretty creative with some fashionable masks, but now innovators are taking them to the next level. they figure if you've got to wear one, why not make one with benefits? thought your mask was just there to protect you from the coronavirus? well, not anymore. some creative minds have been working to make the mask do far more than just that. like this smart mask in japan that can translate from japanese into eight different languages. this innovative idea is the brainchild of japanese startup

doughnut robotics. >> translator: it's hard to hear what customers at the cash register of super markets and convenience stores are saying because there are partitions to prevent droplets. by wearing this mask, it can improve these communications by transcribing the conversations on smartphones or delivering the sound of the voices. >> so how does it work? the c mask as it's called, fits over a regular mask and links via bluetooth to a smartphone or tablet application that translates speech into text messages and also makes calls and will boost the mask wearer's voice. they say the mask should be available by september in japan. in the indonesian capital, jakarta, some creative designers have come up with a way to identify the face behind the mask. at this print shop, nicolas and his employees are printing customers' faces on reusable

masks, giving people an opportunity to look like themselves. some go as far as printing smiling faces on their masks. >> thanks to the face mask, we no longer look like we are sick. >> here in the jordanian capital, amman, the chef is making eggplant to make biodegradable masks. he uses the peel from the vegetable. it is a tedious process. a single peel could take up to two weeks to be turned into a mask. the whole idea was to put a positive spin on mask wearing. he's working with a jordanian designer and a princess who are using their skills to add what they call character to the mask. >> so it's basically going to be something like this. >> so mask wearing might be here to stay, at least for a while longer, but some innovators seem

determined to make it worth our while. thanks for watching "cnn newsroom," everyone. i'm michael holmes, appreciate your company. don't go anywhere, your day's about to improve, natalie allen picks it up from here. businesses are starting to bounce back.

but what if you could do better than that? like adapt. discover. deliver, in new ways, to new customers. what if you could come back stronger? faster. better. at comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back, but bounce forward. and now, with one of our best offers ever, we're committed to helping you do just that. get a powerful and reliable internet and voice solution for only $29.95 a month for three months. call or go online today.

the cdc says the number of people infected with coronavirus may be up to 24 times what has been reported. i'll ask our medical expert the world health organization's covid-19 special envoy about that. also, reports that russian intelligence officers offered cash to the taliban to kill american and british troops in afghanistan. we'll have the latest